ERA BULLETIN — AUGUST, 2018 The Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 61, No. 8 August, 2018 The Bulletin TECH TALK Published by the Electric Railroaders’ by Jeffrey Erlitz Association, Inc. P.O. Box 3323 Over the weekend of July 13-14, the Long Avenue Line in December, 1940. Grand Central Station Island Rail Road placed in service the very The new interlocking is controlled from the New York, NY 10163 th first segment of Farmingdale to Ronkonkoma new 34 Street Master Tower, which is locat- For general inquiries, double-track on the Main Line, between CI ed up on the mezzanine in the closed-off or Bulletin submissions, Interlocking (west of Central Islip station) and passageway between the 34th Street and contact us at nd [email protected] Ocean Interlocking (west of Ronkonkoma 42 Street stations. As is custom these days, or on our website at station). This first segment is just short of five the new control panel was built by Mauell erausa.org/contact miles long. Use of the two main tracks was Corporation of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. Since Editorial Staff: short-lived, though, as right after midnight on Alstom was the prime contractor, it, of the following Saturday, July 21, eastbound course, used its own Model 5 switch ma- Jeffrey Erlitz Track 2 was removed from service between chines and Type AT signal heads. The train Editor-in-Chief those same two points so that the wood ties stops, however, are NYCT-standard Twinco Ronald Yee could be replaced with concrete ties. Model PS-1 equipment. Tri-State News and As of now, the two remaining single-track Elsewhere in this issue mention was made Commuter Rail Editor segments are east of the Farmingdale station regarding another cut-in of CBTC on the Alexander Ivanoff to west of the Deer Park station and east of Subdivision “A” (IRT) Flushing Line. There North American and the Brentwood station to west of the Central were two separate cut-ins, both on express World News Editor Islip station. This second piece of single-track Track M. The first of these, from 33rd Street th David Ross is quite short, a little over 1½ miles. I pre- Interlocking to 74 Street Interlocking, was Production Manager sume that this small section of double-track placed in service over the same weekend, th Copyright © 2018 ERA will be placed in service in the next couple of May 26-29, as the final installment at 34 weeks. At that time Brent Interlocking, at the Street-Sixth Avenue, mentioned just above. former end of the short double-track section Twenty-six automatic signals were removed built during the electrification project in 1987- from service and one new automatic signal 8, will be removed from service. was placed in service. The second cut-in was Over on the subway, the new interlocking at over the weekend June 30-July 2 and in- 34th Street-Sixth Avenue was placed in ser- volved the segment from 74th Street Inter- vice over three weekends in May. This work, locking to Willets Point Interlocking. Twenty- under contract S-32764, is being performed eight automatic signals were removed from In This Issue: by TC Electric, LLC, sub-contractor to Alstom service and one automatic signal had its The Genesis of Signaling, Incorporated. The new signals on grade timing feature removed. Dashing Dan — southbound local Track B1 were done May On both of these weekends, the master 12-14, southbound express Track B3 was control panels at Queensboro Plaza and Enter the North done May 19-21, and both northbound 111th Street, the maintainer’s control panels Side Division tracks, B2 and B4, were done over the long at 33rd Street, 74th Street, 111th Street, and …Page 2 Memorial Day weekend, May 26-29. The old Willets Point, and the dispatcher’s indication 68-lever General Railway Signal Company panel at Main Street were all modified to re- (GRS) Model 5 interlocking machine was not flect these signal changes. one of the oldest machines on Subdivision Many of the automatic signals on Track M “B2” (IND), having been placed into service that were removed dated from about 1938 sometime before the opening of the Sixth (Continued on page 4) 1 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN — AUGUST, OCTOBER, 2018 2000 THE GENESIS OF DASHING DAN — ENTER THE NORTH SIDE DIVISION by George Chiasson (Continued from July, 2018 issue) (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN — AUGUST, 2018 A SPECIAL TRIP OUT OF GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL by Alexander Ivanoff On April 7, 1991, Amtrak bid Grand Central Terminal sidelined because of the necessity to have automatic farewell after spending its first nineteen years dividing train doors at Grand Central Terminal. Despite the in- its New York operations. Until that point, there was no convenience, the familiar announcements of a sold out way to bring trains coming from the Hudson Line (used train were there and, not surprisingly, the train was 90% primarily by Metro-North but also by Amtrak to link Up- full. One thing I found delightful: there was no conga state New York with New York City) into Penn Station line for boarding like at Penn Station. I hope this carries until the construction and completion of the Empire back over to Penn Station, as it makes boarding far Connector, a tunnel that links the west end of the Penn more peaceful. Station interlocking with the old West Side Line, which It is pretty neat to ride in an Amfleet on the Park Ave- had not really been in service since the 1970s. A little nue Viaduct while a train from Poughkeepsie comes trivia is warranted here: Amtrak’s consolidation of oper- inbound. The same for the Harlem River lift bridge. The ations at Penn Station predates the New York Times rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, with the train printing in color! arriving in Albany too late to take the CDTA bus to Growing up, it saddened me that only commuter trains Downtown. As a result, I ended up walking the Dunn operated from Grand Central Terminal, and having Memorial Bridge, which is a wonderful walk when the grown up on the Harlem Line in Brewster, I had a solid weather is nice enough. For brunch I went to the Iron bias against Penn Station (that bias has lessened). Gate Café, where I had one of the better omelets I have Since 1991, there has been a rare occasion or two ever had. Since brunch was quickly served, I had time where Amtrak would end up at Grand Central Terminal to stroll around a very quiet Downtown Albany, including (either for a photo op, a day of trains like in 2014, or for grabbing myself photographic proof of being in front of some rare weekend work). But it was never long-term. the State Capitol, which looks far smaller than one Metro-North, despite dropping the “Commuter” from its would think. name, is not really an intercity railroad. While it does There were some peculiarities with this trip. For one, link the City of New York with the cities of White Plains, the absence of a Quik-Trak contradicts Amtrak’s own Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, New Rochelle, Stamford, marketing. I went on a scavenging hunt back in June to Bridgeport, New Haven, Danbury, and Waterbury, Metro see where they were, and after asking a less-than- -North simply does not qualify. thrilled MNR Station Agent, I was informed that there The derailments at Penn Station in 2017 made full are none. Not sure who to blame on this one, but it operations there impossible due to needed repairs, and, would be nice for those of us who find the Amtrak app as a result three weekday Empire Service trains were fussy with Amtrak Guest Rewards redemption tickets. rerouted to Grand Central during the Summer. From the Amtrak should work to ensure that AGR redemption start there were rumors that Amtrak would return to itineraries show up properly. Grand Central in 2018 on a larger scale. Like with many While several realities make it challenging (from the Amtrak rumors, this one was confirmed when in the fact that Amtrak trains are primarily not push-pull trains Spring Amtrak started changing itineraries. The nature to Grand Central running at peak capacity), I would wel- of the beast was such that the final schedule was only come some permanent intercity rail service at Grand made public just a few days before service out of Grand Central. Even to have select Albany trains operate out Central even started! of Grand Central would restore some of the magic of As Grand Central is my spiritual train station (my the terminal that was lost years ago, even with the res- home station is technically Middletown on the Port Jer- toration work that happened in the 1990s. Part of the vis Line), I felt it obligatory to take the train to Albany issue has been resolved, with Amtrak’s dual-mode loco- from Grand Central Terminal. I cashed in about 3,000 motives receiving escape nose hatches like the ones Amtrak Guest Rewards (AGR) Points for the privilege. found on the Metro-North locomotives. (Speaking of Even with a quick itinerary change, I was glad to make dual-modes, Amtrak is supposed to at a later date modi- the trip. fy the escape hatches on the Metro-North dual-modes, After fretting as to whether I would make it after slow which is a better design than the one factory-supplied running on the 6, I got to Grand Central about 7:10 AM solution).